In September 2015, the 193 member states of the United Nations
adopted a broad universal development agenda, the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs). These goals will shape countries’ planning and
spending over the next 15 years. The SDGs apply to all countries
and actors, including the private sector and civil society, with
commitments to tackle poverty, inequality, and climate change.

Demography will have a bearing on whether many of these goals are
achieved, particularly Goal 8: Full and productive employment and
decent work for all. Factors critical to employment growth emerge
throughout the goals, including creation of economic opportunities
and basic preparation of a healthy and educated workforce. This
Population Bulletin examines the demographic challenges associated
with achieving full and productive employment and decent work for
all across regions and countries.

Losing ground: young women’s well-being across generations
in the United StatesBy Beth Jarosz and Mark Mather

Gains in American young women’s well-being rose rapidly for
members of the Baby Boom generation, but stalled for subsequent
generations. Social and structural barriers to young women’s
progress have contributed to persistently high poverty rates, a
declining share of women in highwage/high-tech jobs, a dramatic
rise in women’s incarceration rates, and increases in maternal
mortality and women’s suicide.

In this Population Bulletin, PRB provides a broad overview of trends
in young women’s social, economic, and physical well-being
over the past 50 years. PRB developed a new Index of Young Women’s
Well-Being to compare outcomes for present day young women (up to
age 34) with young women in previous generations across 14 key social,
economic, and health measures. The results show that the progress
made by women of the Baby Boom generation (born 1946-1964) has stalled
among women of Generation X (born 1965 to 1981) and the Millennial
generation (born 1982 to 2002).

Bulletin Family Planning Equity Among Youth: Where Are We Now?By Elizabeth Leahy Madsen and Charlotte Greenbaum

While the gap in demand satisfied for modern family planning between
rich and poor young women is improving, equitable access to family
planning is still challenging. Wealth-based inequity remains persistent
in most regions of sub-Saharan Africa, even accounting for factors
such as educational attainment, urban/rural residence, and age.

PRB’s new Population Bulletin assesses whether demand satisfied
for family planning, as a key indicator of universal access to sexual
and reproductive health, is equitable among young women ages 15
to 24 in low- and middle-income countries, and to what extent that
inequity has changed over time. We consider these questions at the
global, regional, and national levels, drawing on survey data from
33 countries. The results show that globally, education and marital
status affect demand satisfied for family planning among young women
at least as much as wealth. Further, increases in contraceptive
use, rather than decreases in unmet need, have been the primary
factor driving recent improvements in demand satisfied among young
women.